1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image correcting method, and particularly to an image correcting method, in which image data by which deterioration in image quality of an image recorded on a recording material is corrected is obtained from the image, and an image processing apparatus to which the image correcting method can be applied.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been known that, when a long period of time has elapsed after processing such as development for a film image, which is exposed and recorded on a photographic film and is further subjected to processing such as development so as to be made visible, color dye deteriorates under the influence of storage environmental conditions or aged deterioration of the photographic film, thereby causing image quality deterioration such as so-called color dye fading. For this reason, there is a drawback in that a finished state of a photographic print prepared by exposing and recording a film image on a photographic printing paper a long period of time after processing such as development for the film image differs from a finished state of a photographic print prepared directly after processing such as development. Particularly, in a large-size photographic film such as a Brownie-size film, which makes a demand for image quality of a high level, a great problem arises in which the finished state of a photographic print varies depending on the time th photographic print is prepared.
On the other hand, there has conventionally been known an image processing system in which image processing including various corrections is carried out for image data obtained by reading an image recorded on a photographic film, and the image is recorded on a photographic printing paper or the like based on the image data obtained after the image processing, or the image data obtained after the image processing is stored in an information storage medium. In this type of image processing system, the quality of a recorded image can be controlled relatively arbitrarily by the image processing for the image data. Accordingly, in order to solve the aforementioned problem, an attempt at correcting, by image processing, image quality deterioration of a film image which is caused under the influence of storage environmental conditions or aged deterioration of the photographic film has been made.
However, the storage environmental conditions of the photographic film, or the length of time having elapsed after processing such as development varies greatly every photographic film, and therefore, the degree of image quality deterioration of a film image also varies. Accordingly, the precision of correction for image quality deterioration of each film image has not necessarily reached a proper level.